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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26383840">Black Swan</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeldvokWrites/pseuds/KeldvokWrites'>KeldvokWrites</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Princess Tutu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Hurt/Comfort</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:55:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>750</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26383840</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeldvokWrites/pseuds/KeldvokWrites</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"What if the Duck and the Crow were meant to be? Is it wrong to wish for a different ending?"</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ahiru | Duck &amp; Rue (Princess Tutu)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Black Swan</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Once upon a time, I wrote a story. Do you remember it, Dear Reader? It was a wonderful story, full of dancing and drama, and all sorts of good things. A tale of a prince and a duck; and of a crow and a raven. I learned a lot in the telling of that tale, Reader, and I have always wondered…what if the Duck and the Crow were meant to be? Is it <em>wrong </em>to wish for a different ending? <em>No…I will begin again.</em></p>
<hr/><p>Rue stumbled through the street, the stone’s jagged edges cutting against her soles. She had escaped her father’s clutches, but where was she to go? Being the Raven’s Daughter meant that she had served as an instrument of terror; She was the shadow in the churchyard, the kind of monster well-meaning parents used to scare their children into bed at night. Clutching her bloodied side, she walked on, towards the old house she had once been invited into. A girl lived there, among the rabble, and she had shown Rue kindness once. She remembered the look of hurt and betrayal on the girl’s face as Rue did her father’s will, nearly burning the town to the ground in the process. She knew, deep down, that she didn’t deserve mercy, but she wished to look upon the girl from the town, one last time. So, she marched on.</p><p>“Rue! You’re Hurt!”, Duck exclaimed, after hearing the faint knock at the door, and opening it to find the raven-haired girl, bloody and disheveled.</p><p>“I didn’t know where else to go”, she choked out weakly, before immediately collapsing into Duck’s arms.</p>
<hr/><p>            “Where am I?”<br/>
            “You’re home, silly!”</p><p>            “Home?”. Rue scanned the room: Bloody rags, a sewing needle, antiseptics. This was many things, but home, it was not. It felt cleaner. Brighter. <em>Safer</em>. She glared intensely at the girl. “Is that supposed to be a joke?” Her biting wit had served her well as defense against anything and anyone who looked too closely at her, for fear of reprisal.</p><p>            “Nope! You can live here…if you wanna.” She cast her glance downward, hands nervously clutched to her sides. Perhaps she had been too bold.</p><p>            Rue felt anger rising in her chest, scorching like fire. Se raged at the world, at her father, at her life. But mostly she just raged. “You think they'll let me go after what I've done? These people? I nearly killed them. and it if it wasn’t for Princess Tutu, <em>I would have.”</em></p><p>            Duck looked unimpressed with the outburst, holding fast against the force of its impact.</p><p>            “I forgive you. After all you've done. I forgive you.”</p><p>            Rue bit her lip, hard enough to draw blood.  </p><p>“Why are you doing this? Why me?”</p><p>“Because I love you!” she shouted, her voice shaking.</p><p>Duck’s face turned scarlet, her words having escaped her heart before she had the chance to weigh their gravity. She paced clumsily, muttering to herself all the while.</p><p>Rue sat up in the shoddily constructed bed, dumbfounded. <em>Love?</em> Just who was this girl, who said she loved her, but barely knew her?</p>
<hr/><p>Rue agreed to stay with her, “For the time being”, so she could recover and be on her way, in search of a new home. The days became months so quickly, Rue had hardly realized it. Mornings were often spent baking fresh bread (Rue was a natural; it was a good thing too, as Duck had gained something of a reputation for burning anything that required the use of open flame by the residents of the town), to afternoons in the library, where Duck would read to her. Stories of knights and princesses were her favorite, and Rue would lay back and allow her mind to become a theater, a private show put on for her and no one else, by the strange girl who had given her what the world had denied her as The Raven’s Daughter: a chance at true love.</p><p>And at night, if the stars were set just right in the heavens? Duck would take her stargazing. One night on the roof, when she was sure Duck was fast asleep, Rue looked up at the sky, and, turning to face her sleeping partner, muttered to herself. "These stars are nothing compared to the ones I've seen in your eyes."</p><p>Did it sound silly? Maybe, Rue laughed aloud. But for the first time in her life, she felt like she was where she was supposed to be.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Come chat with me on Tumblr! <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/blog/keldvok">@KeldvokWrites</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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